Ann Coulter: Later, gator!
It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged about Ann Coulter. Not because I didn’t want to but because I haven’t had the time or the energy to do it. Trust me, reading through her blog posts and responding to them takes a lot of energy. I bet wading through a mine field is easier than interpreting your typical Ann Coulter blog post.
Part of the reason for the delay was due to a recent bit of news that I ran across last week. According to the Huffington Post, Ann Coulter is under investigation for voter fraud. Now, whether this is legitimate remains to be seen, especially when you consider that the reason she is under investigation is due to a formal complaint being filed by Coulterwatch.com blogger Dan Borchers. Seems Dan really has it in for Ann Coulter. So either she’ll get busted for voter fraud or the case will go nowhere.
What’s interesting is that this isn’t the first time Ann Coulter has been investigated for voter fraud. Two years ago, Ann was under investigation for voter fraud in Florida. The case was dropped but according to The Brad Blog there was quite a bit of evidence that showed that she deliberately registered under the wrong address on her voter registration, which is a felony under Florida law.
Again, whether this is all just bullshit or not remains to be seen. Of this though I will say this: Should Ann Coulter be found guilty of voter fraud, what would that say about her credibility as a conservative pundit? If anything, it would only show how hypocritical she really is. After all, the rules apply to everyone. Just because you think you’re “special” doesn’t mean that you’re immune to certain rules of law. Nobody is above the law.
With that out of the way, let’s move on to Ann’s latest blog posts. She has written two since my last “Ann” post so this’ll be a two-parter, starting with her latest post entitled Goodbye, America! It Was Fun While It Lasted.
With the stimulus bill being passed, it was only a matter of time before Ann would mention something about it and try to tie in her “motherhood” thesis into it. The problem I have with Ann’s post is that she tries to inject a preconceived abstract idea into something that has little to nothing to do with her thesis. For instance:
For half a century, the welfare establishment had the bright idea to pay women to have children out of wedlock. Following the iron laws of economics — subsidize something, you get more of it; tax it, you get less of it — the number of children being born out of wedlock skyrocketed.
See what I mean? You get this sort of preconceived notion that somehow, because of how our welfare system has worked in the past, somehow women decided that they didn’t need a man or a job and started pumping out babies in order to get a big welfare check. The question is: How many women? How big of a problem is this?
The stimulus bill goes a long way toward repealing the work requirement of the 1996 Republican Welfare Reform bill and rewards states that increase their welfare caseloads by paying unwed mothers to sit home doing nothing.
Where’s the proof of this? What part of the stimulus bill show this? And why target just unwed mothers? How many unwed mothers do we have sitting at home doing nothing? Does anyone really know? Are they really the problem? Or does the problem stem from something much bigger? After all, what situation would cause any woman to want to purposely have kids for the sole purpose of receiving a larger welfare check? Has the thought ever crossed anyone’s mind? I fail to see the logic in Ann’s argument.
Think of it like this: Since 1995, Republicans have controlled both the House and the Senate (with the exception of the Sentate in 2001-2003). In that time, why haven’t Republicans pushed to reform the welfare system and promote a more balanced and fair system? For a party that promotes traditional values and the protection of individual rights, wouldn’t a reform of the welfare system be a part of that creed?
Welfare is supposed to be about providing financial aid to those who find themselves unable to support themselves. It’s not about giving free handouts. There’s no doubt we have folks in this country who have been taking advantage and abusing the system. If there are problems with the system then we need to fix it. But to put all the blame on unwed mothers who are abusing the system is just silly. They are only a fraction of the problem.
The real problem we face is getting people back to work so that they don’t have to rely on welfare and unemployment checks. Unless you’re disabled or have a really legitimate reason for why you can’t work, welfare is supposed to be temporary. As such, we need to find ways of getting people jobs rather than worrying about how many unwed mothers we’re going to blame for our welfare problems. Painting the problem with broad brush strokes leads to putting blame in the wrong place.
…Bureaucrats at Health and Human Services will electronically collect every citizen’s complete medical records and determine appropriate medical care.
And the problem with this is what?
HHS bureaucrats will soon be empowered to overrule your doctor. Doctors who don’t comply with the government’s treatment protocols will be fined. That’s right: Instead of your treatment being determined by your doctor, it will be settled on by some narcoleptic half-wit in Washington who couldn’t get a job in the private sector.
Again, take a preconceived notion about this bill and automatically Ann will find something wrong with it. This is a part of the bill that has received some attention lately and has been stretched, distorted, and twisted to mean something other than what it really is. Ann is playing the “fear” card. The problem is that nothing could be further from the truth.
From what I’ve read, the idea is to create a central database for health records that, in theory, would help reduce costs and errors. After all, insurance companies and the government already have most peoples medical records anyways. Since they’re the ones paying most of the medical bills in our country, it’s easy to see why standardizing on how medical records are handled is so important. Granted, privacy is important and no doctor, insurance provider, and/or the government should hand out your medical records to anyone.
For instance, I recently had a doctor visit and schedule a procedure for this week. However, due to a problem with my insurance, I have to get the procedure done elsewhere. The problem is that the new doctor’s office wants me to come in for a doctor visit before doing the procedure; something about “not having anything to do with the other doctor’s office”. Not only that but I have to fill out a form and wait for the other doctor to transfer my medical records. Basically what this means is that I’m starting from scratch and have to pay for yet another doctor’s visit just to get a procedure done. I’m being double-tapped for no reason.
My thinking is that if there was a standard electronic medical records system then the new doctor would be able to access my records and pretty much allow me to schedule the procedure on the spot without any need for “yet another doctor visit”. This saves me, my insurance company, and my doctor both time and money. Why wouldn’t this be a good idea?
And a brand-new set of bureaucrats in the newly created office of “National Coordinator of Health Information Technology” will be empowered to cut off treatments that merely prolong life. Sorry, Mom and Pop, Big Brother said it’s time to go.
No, the government is not going to stick their nose into your business and tell your doctor what treatments you should receive. That’s completely ridiculous. There is absolutely nothing in the bill that suggests that the government has any right to tell your doctor what to do in regards to your health. That is between you and your doctor and no one else.
However, what the ”National Coordinator of Health Information Technology” can do is monitor what your doctor does to ensure that what he/she is doing is appropriate and cost effective. We’re not talking about regulation here; just some appropriate oversight here. The medical industry is really screwed up and there is no doubt that we have a handful of doctors and insurance companies that are abusing the system. I think what the office of ”National Coordinator of Health Information Technology” is for is to bring back fairness to the system and bring about some long overdue standards in the industry for handling electronic records. Again, why is not a good idea?
At every other workplace in the nation — even Wal-Mart! — workers are being laid off. But no one at any of the bloated government bureaucracies ever need fear receiving a pink slip. All 64,750 employees at the department of Health and Human Services are apparently absolutely crucial to the smooth functioning of the department.
I’m willing to bet that most of the 64,750 workers at the department of Health and Human Services make an average salary of $40-50k per year plus benefits (I could be wrong). It’s not like you have a whole bunch of government workers making six-figure salaries. Given our population, 64,750 workers in that department isn’t all that much. Ann makes millions of dollars per year on her books and owns one or more million dollar homes. I think she would do well to shut up and not be such a hypocrite.
The stimulus bill has a lot to do with infrastructure. After all, the problems we face with our economy encompass just about every facet of our society. Everything is related. Education, health, roads, bridges, technology, environment, jobs, homes, cars, banks, and much, much more. These are things that all of us use every single day and they’re all interrelated and dependent on one another.
Even if we save the car industry, who’s going to lead us into the next millennium with fresh ideas?
Even if we jump-start the path towards energy independence and new energy technologies, will future generations receive the education they need to continue that path?
What happens when the next bridge collapses or the next levee breaks? Who do we blame?
Infrastructure. You can’t fix a myriad of broken systems and a broken economy unless you address the real problem: a lack of infrastructure.
It’s funny because, even before Obama got elected, I’ve been talking about this very thing for nearly two years now. I see how all these problems are related and how a lack of infrastructure caused them. Why can’t Ann see that? Because her preconceived notions prevent her from seeing the truth.
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